Midlife Crisis
by shegal92
Summary: Act II of "Personal Demons". Felix struggles to cope with the truths surrounding his family, while Electronique/Mrs. Renton rekindles her old fire for crime and Felix's father. Rated T for light profanity and a scene of sensuality.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters; I just flesh 'em out.

**Prologue:**

"Felix, what are you still doing in bed?"

"I can't go to school, Mommy, my tummy hurts."

Elena Renton entered her son's space-themed room, making her way towards the rocketship-shaped bed. An eight-year-old boy peered up at her, curled on his side with his hair sticking straight up in that "just woke up" way. She sat down beside him, briefly feeling his forehead with the back of her hand.

"Your tummy hurts, huh? Are you sick…" She pulled her hand away, looking directly into his eyes, "Or are you just worried about school?"

Felix buried his face in his pillow in a poor attempt to hide from the world.

"I don't _know_ anyone…" He moaned. She smirked sympathetically; it was his first move since he had started grade school, as well as his first school in the states. It was only natural for him to be nervous.

She rubbed his shoulder, fingers pressing gently into his muscles in an attempt to soothe him, "Well, then, you'll have to make new ones. You're good at that, aren't you?"

"I miss London…" He whined.

"Maybe we'll visit during the holidays," she offered. He didn't seem to buy it.

She held her finger up in a "wait a minute" gesture before leaving the room. Felix watched her go, not sure what she was up to. She returned with a small wooden box, setting it on her lap as she sat back down.

"This is my "miss" box," she introduced, placing a hand on the smooth lid, "I put a little bit of everything I miss into here. It helps me remember the good things, and reminds me that they aren't gone forever."

Felix sat up and scooted closer as she took off the lid, revealing sundry little trinkets ranging from her mother's jewelry to pictures of high school friends. He picked up a picture of a marina at sunset and showed it to her.

"Where's this?" He asked. She glanced down at it.

"This," she said, her finger caressing the pier that stretched out into the calm ocean, "Is a place called Go City. It's where I went to college, and where I fell in love. I used to go down to these docks all the time, and watch the waves roll in and out. It's the only place in the whole world I feel I belong."

Felix looked up from the pretty picture and met her eyes. She smiled, clutching the back of his head.

"But, if I would've stayed there, I would have never had you," she insisted, kissing his forehead. Trapped by her grip, he had to endure the affection, and quickly wiped it off with a giggle. She laughed right back, ruffling his hair, "Sometimes we have to let go of what we have in order to grab onto better things."

He wasn't sure why his mother's eyes were all cloudy, or why her voice didn't sound as happy as usual. Maybe her "miss" box was making her miss all of these things, like Go City and the docks. But, before he could ask about it, she had slipped the picture out of his hands and put it in the box, snapping it shut.

"Now, my little monkey, you need to go to school."

"Whyyyy?" He complained, believing he had made progress into convincing her to let him stay home.

"Because if you don't, then the education police will come and put you in education jail, where you do nothing but write sentences all day long." Felix sucked in a worried breath, quickly reaching backwards to push buttons on his nightstand. Elena snickered, getting up and leaving him to the robotic hands to help him get dressed.

Elena started to sympathize with him once they pulled up to the school. The children gawked as Felix wheeled out of the van in his high-tech chair, and the mothers weren't much better. Felix sank back as though that would make him more invisible to their wide eyes.

"Listen to me, Felix," Elena murmured urgently, crouched down so she was eye level with him, "There will be idiots who will try to convince you that being different is bad and something to be ashamed of in order to feel better about themselves, but no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eat your carrot sticks, don't get too many rocks in your wheels, and be nice to everyone, no matter how they treat you. That's the number one way to make friends."

Felix shifted uneasily in his seat. Perhaps Eleanor Roosevelt was a bit much for a Monday morning… She sighed.

"Give me your hand," she said. He obediently held it to her and she turned it so the palm was facing up. She took it in both of her hands, bent down, and kissed the center of it, "There. Now no matter where I am, you'll always have me with you, no farther than the palm of your hand."

"Like in the story," he murmured.

"Exactly like in the story," she assured him. He looked thoughtful for a moment, then took her hand and kissed the palm of it.

"Now I'm with you too," he announced proudly. She pressed the palm to her heart.

"Thank you sweetheart," she stepped aside as he started to wheel towards the elementary school's entrance, his natural confidence emerging once again. She waved after him with her free hand, "Have a good day at school!"

Really, becoming a mother had turned her into such a teary-eyed sad sack. The once feared heartless, sadistic tyrant known as Electronique was now reduced to near-tears at something as simple as a kiss on her hand. If this made her so emotional, how on earth was she going to survive the rest of his life?

She turned to see the other carpool mothers watching her curiously; too timid to come out and actually _ask_ what she knew must be on their minds. Dangerous anger flared up in her, and her instinct was to smash anything close by, screeching at the top of her lungs that yes, her son was in a wheelchair and yes, he had been paraplegic since birth and no it wasn't because she did drugs while she was pregnant with him or drank or was beaten by an abusive partner sometimes these things just happened and the chair didn't make him any different from any of their precious leg-functional dumb-as-bricks children, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Instead, she smiled sweetly at them, channeling her rage into a sickly perky tone.

"That first day of school in a new town is _so_ hard, isn't it?" The other mothers nodded and mumbled their agreement hurriedly, verbally stumbling around from the shock that they had jumped to the wrong conclusion about her son's unease. Really, the hilarious awkwardness of people trying to be politically correct was one of the few perks of Felix's condition. To put icing on the cake, Elena innocently asked, "By the way, when are Little League try-outs?"

**III**

Welcome, welcome. Whether you're new to this saga or have graciously followed me from "Personal Demons", I'm glad you're here now. I predict this little adventure's going to be a fun one, judging from the conversations I had during "Personal Demons" (I was grateful for such attentive reviewers, and the PM convos were really interesting). There'll be drama, angst, family feuding, couple banter, a Chihuahua, some coffee, adults acting like children, genetic discussion, the "m" word, and some good ol' cattiness. I hope to get these chapters up in decent intervals but that being said, chill your buns if there's a delay, being employed and such. Anyways, I hope you enjoy, and please review!


	2. Prisoners With Consent

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters; I just flesh 'em out.

**Nearly Eleven Years Later**

The drug was excruciating slow in wearing off, leaving Electronique to fume internally. The grogginess was starting to lift, and she took advantage of the moment to blindly assess her surroundings.

Two breathing patterns, their exhalations suggesting massive sizes. Their bored shuffling informed her that they were sitting down, on chairs, and those chairs were something she could use. The light on the back of her eyelids was orange-yellow; she was directly under a source of it. Her hands, from the tips of her fingers to her elbows, were wrapped tightly in duct tape, and her legs were tied in a similar fashion. Her chair was plastic, with no nifty little mechanical cuffs or anything. Drat. If only she could figure out where the door was positioned, she could start to work on the tape…

"Good morning, Dr. Renton. I trust that you slept well?"

Three. There were three in the room, and the third one was (consciously or unconsciously) using the ventilation system to hide his breathing. She sighed, letting her head drop back against the chair and slipped into her accent as comfortably as a pair of silk pajamas.

"I'm flattered that you'd use the high-end anesthesia on me, Gemini, but honestly you could've gone a couple grades lower."

At a silent signal, the two seated men got up and left the room. The door had been between them.

She listened to Mr. Tall-Dark-And-Handsome grab one of their chairs and position it in front of her, respecting her personal bubble. She dragged her head up to a normal position, and blearily opened her eyes.

The chair was turned around and he was resting his chin on his folded arms, legs straddling it casually. She rubbed her eyes against one shoulder, trying to clear the sleep from them.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, Elena," he growled. The sweet reunion of last night had faded, and now Elena Monique Renton, AKA Electronique, had to answer to her ex-lover and head of the Worldwide Evil Empire Sheldon Director, AKA Gemini. She knew this conversation had to happen, but she wished she was just a bit more clear-headed, or the lights weren't so bright, "First off, why were you in cahoots with my younger sister, my sworn enemy?"

"Because who else could keep Felix and I hidden from an organization twice the size of the FBI?" She grumbled.

"Why were you trying to hide from me in the first place?"

She sighed, shoulders shrugging down.

"I wanted to give our son the opportunity for a normal life." She said it as though it was a well-rehearsed line. He straightened slightly.

"…our son?" He repeated.

"Yes, idiot, _our_ son. He was born six months after that night in the Caribbean… A little early, but I'd still think you'd put the pieces together." Really, why did everyone think she was a tramp? Questionable morality didn't always go hand-in-hand with promiscuity.

His eye lowered.

"…I didn't want to assume," he said softly, and she almost felt bad for snapping at him. Almost. He frowned, "You should have at least told me."

"What, and have you give up when you were so close to being the head chairman? So close to rivaling Betty, ready to bring her and Global Justice down?!"

Something started yipping like crazy. Gemini leaned over to coo and stroke at something by his leg until it calmed down.

"It wasn't fair for both of us to give up our ambition," she concluded. He shook his head.

"And why couldn't _I_ have stayed at home with him while you continued to bring down Team Go and conquer Go City?"

"Because you would've been teaching him the evil alphabet before he could even crawl! I wanted him to have a choice, not force him into a life he may not want!"

"Oh, and _your_ lines between villainy and parenting are so clear?" He jeered. She jerked back, her face twisted into a snarl.

He shook his head.

"This is stupid," he decided, "We shouldn't be fighting over what should have happened; it's in the past and we can't change it," he met her eyes, "We can only work on the present."

Elena clenched her jaw, suddenly feeling very weak. Helpless, even. Being reminded of the present only made her remember what she had left in Middleton, her secrets laid out and no time to see a reaction.

"…he's never going to speak to me again," she said resignedly, "He's going to hate me, and I'll never see him again," Her voice cracked. Gemini shook his head.

"I don't think so. He just needs time… He'll see." His tone was so smooth, so certain, she wanted to believe him.

But he didn't know Felix like she did. He didn't know how strict Felix's moral code was, that he was friends with Team Possible, that he had fought their kind before without provocation. Raising a good kid was coming around to bite her in the ass. She tried to suppress her fears for now because there was nothing she could do about them. She was here, with her other love, and without a foreseeable escape.

"We need time too," she murmured. He nodded.

"Dinner tonight?"

"Sounds wonderful," she wriggled her fingers, only managing to bend them slightly, "Would you be a gentleman and unbind me?"

"Do you promise not to run away?" He teased, getting to his feet. Her eyes locked on his.

"Not again. Not for a very long time," she promised.

He leaned over her and they kissed again. Her spine tingled, but she managed not to let herself lose control. She parted her lips and the kiss might've extended, if it weren't for the high-pitched barking down by Gemini's ankles. Elena pulled away and glanced down, scowling.

"Why do you have a barking rat?" Gemini gasped.

"How dare you talk about Pepe that way!" He roared, scooping up the little pest and immediately trying to soothe it, "It's okay, Pepe, Mommy didn't mean it…"

Mommy? Since when had she made any commitment to that parasite carrier? And since when was calming a Chihuahua ever successful? Watching him coo and nuzzle the pint-sized excuse of a pet sparked a theory in her; maybe men were just as prone as women to have serious developmental issues if they missed their chance at parenting.

In this case, substituting a mutt for a baby.

Gemini straightened, thrusting his chin in the air.

"I think you earned yourself another thirty minute time out," he declared. Electronique's mouth dropped open.

"What?! That isn't even fair! I didn't say anything bad about that purse-dwelling menace!" She insisted. Gemini turned on his heel and Electronique seethed.

The miniature mongrel glanced back at her and she _swore_ it smirked in animalistic satisfaction. It was a sad day when a beast ranked higher than a woman on a man's list.

**III**

Felix Renton sat catatonic in a wheelchair, staring down at the hand resting on his lap, fingers curled upwards. He traced along his life-line, and marriage-line, and all those other lines, and wondered if his future really was in the creases of his palm. Was every event laid out so neatly in his flesh, like a life road map he couldn't decipher? If it was, which fold warned him that one day he'd find out his mother was a super villain, his father was an evil secret agent, and his aunt was the director of an organization more efficient than any special ops group?

"I'm sorry KP, but I just can't get over it. I mean, yeah, I guess it's possible some bad guys hook up… Like Motor Ed and Adrena Lynn, or maybe Shego and Junior, but I would've _never_ guessed that Gemini was getting it on with Electronique."

"Ron!" Kim snarled, as effective as a slap in the small elevator, "Remember that "filter" thing we talked about…?"

"It's alright, Kim," Felix murmured, "He's got a point. It's weird."

"Not just weird, like super grande weird from the Planet of Absurdity. No offense," Ron added quickly.

"None taken."

The elevator stopped, and Felix could've sworn they'd been in that thing for at least a half-hour, heading underground. His finger reached for his joystick-like controller but remembered belatedly that he was in a normal wheelchair now.

"It's not safe," Dr. Director…Aunt Betty…had explained, "It's probably loaded with tracking devices."

Translation: Your mom bugged your wheelchair.

Dr. Director stepped out of a nearby chute, much narrower than the handicap-accessible one they had ridden down in. There was nothing really aunt-like about her; she didn't have a strange way of talking, she wasn't excitable or quirky, and he doubted her house was full of cats. She was detached, cool, like she had walked out of a secret agent comic book. Nothing much would faze a woman like her…

…except for apparently his mother.

"I'm sorry about the sudden evacuation, Felix," she offered as he wheeled over to her, "I didn't feel comfortable leaving you there, not when WEE knew where you were."

It took him a second to realize that it was "WEE", not "we", she was talking about. There had to be a better acronym than that.

"What are we doing about Mom?" He asked. She blinked.

"Pardon?"

"Mom, Elena, Electronique, what_ever_ you want to call her. She got captured by criminal agents, if I got this straight. So what are we going to do to get her back?" Dr. Director drew in a breath.

"Felix… We're not sure she _wants_ to come back."

He remembered one time in P.E., spinning around and playing dodgeball with all the other kids. He was really good at catching them, and it was back when his peers were too young to be hypersensitive about his condition. A ball had come from the other side of the line, as straight as if it had been shot out of a cannon, and he took the hit in the stomach. First there was the lack of air, then pain, and finally nausea as he doubled over himself. He swore he was going to puke all over the gym floor.

Apparently coming to the conclusion that his mother might have ditched him of her own free will brought on those same symptoms. This time, there wasn't a ball, and the one who had thrown the pitch didn't apologize profusely and beg for forgiveness.

"Of course she does," Kim said sharply, surprising Felix out of his pain and nausea, "She left him so that WEE wouldn't come after him. If she had really abandoned him…" She trailed off. Felix could think of a thousand ways to finish that sentence.

Dr. Director drew in a breath.

"We'll keep our finger on the pulse of this situation," she compromised, "If she's being held against her will, and wants to escape, I'll send all the aid I can afford to bring her out. But if she's content…then there's nothing we can do," she glanced down the hall, "It's getting late. There'll be a room for you in my quarters. Miss Possible and Mr. Stoppable will also be welcome…a slumber party, if you will."

"Sleepover at a top secret base! Booyah!" Ron exclaimed, fist-pumping, before Felix said a word. He smiled at Kim, who rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's antics.

"Whatever you need, Felix, we're here for you," she said. Felix shrugged.

"I'd hate to let Ron down," he joked.

Dr. Director led them to her "quarters", which looked like a suite-style version of a house. The core of it was a sparsely decorated living area and kitchenette, while evenly-spaced doors circled around it.

"That will be your room," she announced, nodding towards one of the doors, "If you need anything, there is my room," she gestured towards another door a few down from his.

"Thanks," Felix murmured. Dr. Director looked at him, and for a moment she seemed almost vulnerable.

"We'll have this situation sorted out soon," she promised.

His room wasn't much more furnished than the living area; a bed, a small dresser, an even smaller table and an oval rug. They were all in various shades of blue; very chic, very college-dorm-on-a-budget. Had it been like this since the beginning, or had she tried to make it more comfortable for him? He wheeled over towards the bed to find two suitcases set aside. _His_ suitcases.

"Is she always this…meticulous?" He phrased carefully, glancing at Kim. She nodded.

"You have to be one step ahead if you deal with villains all day," she said, then blushed furiously, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"

"I know," Felix sighed, "I better get used to the idea of villainy being close to home."

"Ohmigosh, the sofa comes out of the wall! Just like in that cartoon!" Ron, who had wasted no time in playing with the remote set down on the table, exclaimed.

Kim walked closer to Felix, tentatively sitting on the bed.

"In hindsight, it makes sense, yanno?" Felix murmured, staring down at his lap, "Her sinister laugh when the dog who left one too many presents on our lawn walked right into her electrical field and ran whimpering home… declaring that the convenience store clerk who never gave her correct change back was her arch nemesis… threatening to annihilate the kid who kept calling me "Wheelix" and declare vengeance on the class for joining in… I thought she was just intense."

"It's going to be okay, Felix," Kim assured him, resting a hand on his knee, "Like the Director said, it'll get sorted out soon."

Ron pursed his lips, staring thoughtfully at Felix.

"So if Electronique's your mom…and Gemini's your dad…does that mean you're going to flip out and become a super villain someday?"

"Ron!"

"I'm just sayin', KP, that's some pretty hefty genetic odds! He's a walking time bomb!" Ron turned back to Felix, "You know, maybe you should do some digging, see how many of your family members are morally disabled…"

Felix couldn't help but chuckle, smiling at Ron's seriousness.

"I don't want to be a super villain, Ron," he insisted, "I mean, what would I do with the world if I had it?"

Ron considered this for a moment, then snapped his fingers.

"Get every game before it hits shelves! Have a Bueno Nacho in your kitchen! Nonono! _Go in the ten items or less line at Smarty Mart with eleven items_."

As tempting as those ideas sounded, it seemed like a little too much effort for a handful of perks. Felix shook his head.

"You aren't born good or evil; you _make _that choice," he said confidently.

**III**

So, um…it's been awhile. Apparently the cons of writing a story out all at once is forgetting to edit and upload the chapters… Whoopsie. Anyway, I will try to be better, and I hope you enjoy.


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